Jimmer Fredette

With an ADP of 68.6 in drafts all the way back in 2014, Jimmy Butler has been an absolute revelation and made all his fantasy owners rich with value. “Butler, I need some extra steals! A couple more blocks! Some artisan cheese!” And the trusty ol’ Butler would always deliver.

Unfortunately, all that caviar and pancetta piled on that silver serving plate really wore down the Butler’s elbow, and Jimmy Buckets is going to miss 3-4 weeks. Hey, on the bright side this is the NBA and not a year-long pitcher injury! So the billion dollar question – to drop or not to drop JB? Well don’t drop me! I’d try to hold where I could. I’d much rather have JB at the end of my bench than stashes of Kemba Walker or Paul George. Even in 10ers, I think I’d probably hold on as most Jimmy Buckets teams are doing pretty well.

In his stead, the vastly improved Tony Snell should get the tiger’s share of minutes. He’s greeeeeeeeeat! I don’t think he’s a must-own in even 12ers though, since he’s a semi-ThrAGNOF with steals upside. Not that I don’t like him! But I would say a little better FG%/FT% version of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The real interesting addition to me is Nikola Mirotic, who should get a lot of run while Taj Gibson is out at least another week. And with Butler gone, maybe he gets a handful of SF minutes here and there, even though it hasn’t gone that well when experimenting with that before… But experiments take a lot of tries before they go right! Here’s what else I saw last night in fantasy basketball action:

Man, who woulda thought the Bucks without Brandon Knight (sat with minor injuries) would’ve been able to beat the Raptors last night?! I figured that big Jurassic Park reboot trailer during the Super Bowl would have pumped the Raps up! Well, I guess Canadians don’t really watch the Super Bowl, so their loss!

And while the 82-75 win was a defensive grinder, it didn’t slow down that impressive O from The Duchess K Middleton! 25/9/1/3/0 for Khris Middleton, hitting 10-17 FG (3-4 3PTM 2-2 FT) and only 1 TO. All that with Jorge Gutierrez as the fill-in starting PG! It didn’t matter though, since they had a JB waiting in the wings as well… But more there later. With 25 Pts last night, K-Midd is 17+ points in 4 of 5 and 3+ treys in 4 of 5. And multi-steals in 4 of 5 for good measure as well! Even though a lot of the counting stats are lower than the breakout last year, so are the minutes and the %s are much better. But my favorite leap is 1.0 steals in 30 minutes last year to a whopping 1.5 in only 26 this year. The Duchess is secretly a world-class thief! I think Keira Knightley could star in that movie. Larry Drew could be the evil drug lord! Maybe Ersan Ilyasova can be a Turkish arms dealer. The script is writing itself! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:

After a tough groin injury, we really weren’t sure how long DeMar DeRozan would be Frozen. “Let it go! Let it go! Blah dee, blah dee, blah…” Trying to reach out to our younger readers.

DD is back and immediately entices with immense cleavage! Younger readers, alienated. DeRozan returned after missing a month and a half/21 games for a very solid 20/4/4/1/1 game hitting 9-14 FG. It was against the soon to be relegated Sixers, so there’s that, but this is mighty encouraging. In a game where Toronto didn’t need him at all, he started, got 29 minutes, and looks healthy for the stretch run. Toronto letting the DD out! I bet chicks aren’t letting the DD out this time of year in Canada, sheesh it’s cold in NC! Lots of ripples with DeRozan back out there. The biggest is it looks like James Johnson can go in several leagues, as sad an epitaph as it is… Played only 15 minutes for 5/2/2/0/0. Some of that was probably matchup based since the Sixers backup depth is in guards (and Amir Johnson played well), but it’s a swift death. Terrence Ross also played only 18 minutes as the starter and scored 2 Pts without doing anything else. Ross is barely 16-teamer worthy now, as one of the deepest lineups in the NBA is healthy top to bottom. The Raptors bench could probably contend for a playoff spot in the East. Well they’d have to replace Tyler Hansbrough. I think one of those inflatable flailing arms things has more ball skills than Psycho T… Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:

The new year brings us the glorious 2nd coming of the Durantula, again. Kevin Durant looked better than expected going 44/10/7/0/1 with 6 3s and 12-12 FTs. Sure you could argue the stat line was OT aided but just that Durant played 40 minutes after missing 6 games tells me there is nothing wrong with his ankle. I imagine any buy low window is long gone after this game but he might be worth one last attempt to trade for. If you thought this is why I watched this game though you would be wrong. I wanted to see the Steven Adams vs Alex Len match-up. Lurch with 9/7/1/1/0 in 27 minutes and Len with 2/6/0/0/1 in 22 minutes. There is no question Adams is the guy to own. Neither are part of the offense but at times Len looked bored and unsure of what he was supposed to be doing on both ends of the court. That is a sentence I will never write about Steven Adams. His aggression does one of two things. The foul trouble associated will give him a few duds but it will also lead to big games which I don’t think Len has in him this year. There were a ton of huge stat lines in this 137-134 overtime thriller but perhaps the stat that tells the biggest story was the 6 technical fouls. Including two and an ejection for…

On a near-unparalleled night for my bold call for MVP yesterday and Razzball’s #1 fantasy pick, I’ve gotta say, it feels like it’s going to be a great season! An unbelievable 26/17/2/3/9 in a near trip-dub with the blocks, and fitting he’d be 2014-15’s first rainbow line (at least 2 Pts/Reb/Ast/Stl/Blk). In H2H leagues, if you have Brow you better win blocks this week! Not only were those blocks more than enough, but Brow was a solid 10-22 from the field (6-9 FT), and didn’t commit a single TO. About all you could complain about is if you play in a triple-doubles league, he just needed one more swat! Just one!

Of the 25 experts on FantasyPros, only 5 had Brow #1 overall with yours truly one of the five, and Razzball’s Seth a second. Now, before you go unloading your top 5 picks for Brow in a desperate trade, don’t forget this was against the Magic who looked pretty horrific. Then again, Stephen Curry and LeBron James are going to have to do something outrageous to make the Brow non-believers feel better tomorrow…

Here’s what else went down across the league’s first three regular season games:

Razzball Nation! Man, scary to think there’s only a week left of the regular season. Where has all the time gone?! While the majority of leagues have wrapped up, we’ve still got some extended H2H finals and Roto players out there who need a pickup for The End of the Road. And why not Randy Foye after his 30/5/15/2/0 explosion last night? “Wait, don’t you hate Randy Foye JB?!” Shut it, commenter who remembers everything! I do hate Foye, but he’s going to get the volume with Ty Lawson out at least another few games with his bum ankle. Brian Shaw is saying Lawson probably will return this season, and coaches never lie or deceive us in the NBA, right?! Cough cough. With only two games on the slate tomorrow, the 63%-owned Foye (which, yes, is probably lower than it should be given the leagues that are over with aren’t making moves) needs to be scooped up in all leagues still rounding out their finals. Plus the Nugs schedule the rest of the way is @GS, UTA, @LAC, GS. He’s gonna heave up more threes than Jimmer Fredette at the BYU Alumni game! Here’s what else I’ve seen over the last couple of days of NBA action:

Razzball Nation! We’re here on a special weekend wrap-up where Slim (this is JB speaking) got to the action and JB just snuck in the beginning. And snuck in the end! I’m like Brad Pitt at the Oscars. “Wait, why is he winning best picture! So confused right now…” Tomorrow I’ll proudly illustrate what I did over the weekend, but a nice defining touch hoops-wise was another great one from my boy Mike Scott, who while posting great lines, isn’t helping the Hawks win… And that’s a problem! Especially with Paul Millsap assumedly back sometime soon this week. But I thought Gravity mighta gotten best picture too! After a really rough send-off last Monday, went bonkers on the Suns for 20/5/2/3/0 with three treys and not a single TO. I bet Philly sports fans wish they had no TO. BOOM! Double sports joke. The main number that got my emoji tats all excited was the 40 mins played. Millsap is going to travel with the Hawks as they migrate on a 5-game road trip, but very easily could miss the first few making Scott a solid short-term add. So beam him aboard, win a big week as we near playoff time, and don’t forget to yell over the music if those pompous mf#@*$ng PA guys at the Oscars wanna condescend you by playing the music. And here’s Slim with what he saw over the weekend:

When Glen Davis went to the pre-season Magic weigh-in, the trainer was like, “355 Big Baby, really?” “These hips don’t lie!” And in a very full slate of games last night, we had two pretty premiere big men have their hips not lie and go out on them. “Help I’ve fallen and can’t get up!” The NBA to start issuing players life alerts to wear around their necks. DeMarcus Cousins was the first to succumb to the AARP ailment. Suffered a left hip flexor, but coach Mike Malone said it probably wasn’t serious. Destiny is like, “wait a ‘left’ hip? I thought, like, for people we had only one hip!” No child left behind fails us yet again. Good thing it’s the All-Star break for Boogie! An All-Star Boogie! Dude, that should totally be an event. Breakdance Horse! Hah. Then Derrick Favors went out and re-aggravated his right hip that had caused him to miss games here and there over the past month. This one is a lot less bueno. But hey, DeMarcus and Derrick have a pair of healthy hips! If only they were siamese twins – they’d get, like, 35 rebounds a game. Favors will likely get an MRI and be brought along very slowly since this is a re-aggravation. Enes Kanter to the rescue! Might get some solid run and deserves love in a lot of leagues. And don’t sleep on Rudy Gobert in deep leagues if you need some blockage. Speaking of blockage, look at some of the traffic photos of NC from yesterday. No one learned from Atlanta! And the best basketball game on the slate, UNC-Duke, cancelled. Travesty. Let’s get this global warming going again! Here’s what else I saw last night in fantasy hoops:

I might be making this up, but doesn’t Denver play the Flavor Flav “Yeah Boy!” when Randy Foye hits a three? Well I hope they do! After a brutal Super Bowl for the Broncos (and America), the Denver populous got some slight redemption with Foye hitting this buzzer-beater last night. Sportscenter! But even with that game-winner, Foye had a rainbow flirt of 14/7/4/1/2. That’s not ThrAGNOF! Even with Ty Lawson back, Foye is rackin’ up multi-cat!? I haven’t been a big Foye fan for shallower leagues this year – I thought he was constantly overvalued – but getting 16 dimes in his previous game then a nice all-around line last night with Ty-Ty back; I think I’m a little more a believer. Sure it’s only one game against a fast-paced Clippers team, but 40+ minutes yet again last night and now in three straight games and Foye is looking pretty locked in for good value right now. Owned in 57% of Yahoo leagues seems a little thin. Show ya Foye a little Flavor of Love. Here’s what else I saw last night in NBA action:

All hail Trey Burke! May all the inhabitants of the great Salt Lake City and all their respective wives rejoice! And… the Jazz are still atrocious. Poor Tyrone Corbin. He’s got to fiddle with Burke, Alec Burks, John Lucas III and now Diante Garrett at the point. Jerry Sloan got John Stockton. Then Deron Williams. It just ain’t fair! In yet another Jazz loss moving them down to 1-12, Burke got 12 minutes even, going 11/1/1 with a steal and hitting a trey shooting 5-8. Trey with the trey! If only Deuce McAllister was an NBA player. Deuce with the deuce! Or if McAllister was a dunker, “Deuce with the upper decker!” I had the unfortunate pleasure of doing highlights for my second Jazz game now, but it was cool to see Burke’s debut and I thought he looked pretty good. His first NBA points were off a long rebound then coast-to-coast for a controlled, attacking floater. Obviously he’s getting eased in and he’ll get more minutes – hippity-skippity to a few months back and I was bigger on Burke than anyone – but I’m not ready to go nuts and drop quality guys for him. Of course it’s a case-by-case scenario, but I really wanted Burke to get tons of preseason work; instead he broke his finger and missed some really crucial development time. For example, I think I’m still holding Patrick Beverley over him. PBev is the Razzball “why can’t I quit you?!” fantasy asset. Lucas III is obviously not a long-term solution, and while he’s in the mix, he didn’t look good last night but was the only guy that could hit any long balls. Alec Burks looked awful, sure his line 8/1/1/1/2 is fine, shot 3-6 – fine – but racked up 4 TOs in 16 minutes. Just looked bad. Which brings me to Diante G, who I thought looked really good. Garrett actually led the Jazz in PG minutes with 20, and racked up a 4/1/6 line with three steals and only 2 TOs (one late one was pretty bad, but the game was over) and played down the stretch. Garrett was the only point who could create opportunities. So it’s a little crowded with Burks’ potential wilting away and Garrett looking decent as a D-League gamble and could get run through the season. I think Lucas III gets cut at some point and Burks plays strictly backup 2 minutes, but that’s just me. It’s a mess. Shocker, considering it’s the Jazz! Here’s what else I saw last night: